New Make/Bake 16 - Chocolate Marshmallow Brown Sugar Fudge

Whilst M attempted some DIY (aka removing the old water tank from the loft before we put in new loft insulation) I had some time to spare to decided to try a recipe of something on my "Things I want to make/bake in 2012" list!

Having made a Savoury Make/Bake for brunch then I wanted to give something sweet a go and also wanted to make something from one of my Xmas Cookbooks. I selected the lovely "Home Cooking Make Easy" by Lorraine Pascale as it was a book I dropped MASSIVE hints to M about getting me, but as yet I've not used it! There are so many lovely things in this book which are on my must make/bake list. Today I decided to give  Chocolate Marshmallow Brown Sugar Fudge a whirl!

Fudge is one of those things that has slightly scared me, I think it's because it's to do with boiling sugar and being as clumsy as I am, I had a feeling it would end in disaster. Lorraine assured readers that it was very easy and there was no need for sugar thermometers.

One thing that amazed me was quite how much sugar goes into fudge. Not only was there light brown sugar and marshmallows but also evaporated milk and chocolate... not a dish I think I'd recommend to diabetics!!

As always, I didn't totally stick to the instructions, I grated the dark chocolate but made quite a mess so for the milk chocolate I used 300g of milk chocolate drops which worked perfectly well. I don't think I'd do the same with dark chocolate as the dark chocolate drops don't seem to be as good quality as you'd need (not the minimum 70% cocoa solids) but for milk chocolate I was happy to make the swap!

The smell of the fudge cooking was delicious, a lovely sweet and sugary smell which wafted all through the house. M (who was up in the loft) called down to see how long until he try them! I found they took about 4 hours to set properly, however M only lasted 2 or so before he started begging for me to cut them up so they were still a bit warm and soft when we gave them the taste test. He  then promptly devoured 3 squares, so I have a feeling they were rather tasty!

All in all they were very quick and easy, perfect for newbies to Fudge making. I loved the taste that the brown sugar and marshmallows gave the fudge and I think I'll be making these again, probably as part of my plans to make Xmas hampers for all our friends and family next year. I think I'll go give them another taste now.....